What’s wrong with drilled blocks of wood for a mason bee house?

  • Although this is an easy way to start a colony, you are unable to observe what occurs behind the mudded entrance.  Crown Bees does not support the sale of this type of mason bee house.

drilled blocks of wood for mason bees are bad

  • Pests and diseases will slowly close down each hole.  After a few years, you’ll notice that more holes won’t open up.  At that point you’ll wind up losing most of your bees.  We’ve worked with people who had thousands of unopened holes.
  • Bamboo is no different.  Bamboo is such a strong material that it can’t be opened up without harming the bees.  Bamboo, although cheap, is not a good medium to raise mason bees in.
  • We strongly suggest that you shift to straws, reeds, or wood trays.  This allows you to harvest mason bees in September or October to observe problems which will help you maintain and improve the health of your mason bee colony.
  • If you are in doubt, mark the mudded entrances with a marker.  You’ll see which holes are actually cemeteries.  Even if they do open, you won’t know if the rear of the hole is dead or not.

 

Transfering Bees from old blocks or straws to new straws

The big picture:

    • The mason bee typically likes to see what she’s flying in to. If she can’t, then most will find another, more visible home.  We’re going to hide the old holes.
  • Place your old nesting block or straws inside a cardboard box or paper sack with a few exit holes in the sides. The mason bees will emerge from the old block/straw, then exit the sack and look for other holes.mason bee wood block in box mason bee tubes in sack
  • Your new mason bee shelter and straws should be positioned nearby for the bees to find.
  • You may notice males crawling back into the sack or block looking for females. That’s fine. You just don’t want the females doing this!
  • If you do notice females beginning to use the old block or straws, move the box or sack away to another location every few days.  This should confuse the mason bee and she should be attracted to the “non-moving” mason bee house being used by other mason bees.
  • You should be able to take your old block away by early May.  We suggest knocking the block on the ground a few times to wake up any bees that might still be alive.  Observe how many holes didn’t open up.  This will help you assess the health of your old mason bee colony’s house…  Eye opening?